


Billow These Sails

by SilverMyfanwy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Danger, Drowning, Enemies to Friends, Eventual Romance, Getting Together, Injury, Major Character Injury, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Pirates, Romance, Sea Monsters, Serious Injuries, Shipwrecks, Weddings, fleur hasn't arrived for the wedding, harry's the boss, there are storms and a sea monster and, they get sent to go and get her, they're pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-01 22:10:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16292729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMyfanwy/pseuds/SilverMyfanwy
Summary: The piracy career of the Firebolt goes on hold when Harry and his crew are sent on a race against time across the English Channel to try and get Fleur from France for her wedding to Bill. There's only a pair of storms, a sea monster and a hole in the hull to try and deal with along the way.





	1. Hoist the Sails

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this earlier this year. It makes me smile.  
> There will be a sequel.  
> I hope you like it.

Harry smiled proudly at his crew. All eleven of them were bickering away.

Ron was arguing with Hermione over the amount of food he ate. Luna was trying to convince Neville that mermaids existed. Seamus and Dean were rowing over the best way to tie a reef knot. Alicia and Katie were yelling at Oliver and Angelina over a comment someone had made in the pub the week before and Oliver and Angelina were yelling back. Ginny, however, was nowhere to be seen.

Harry frowned. It wasn’t like Ginny to miss an argument.

“Captain!” Ginny shouted over the arguments. She was standing in the doorway that lead to the communications room. “Come and see this!”

Harry walked across the gently rocking floor of the mess hall to where Ginny had a letter in hand. “What is it?”

“It came by messenger parrot two minutes ago. It’s from Bill.”

“What does he say?”

“Phlegm didn’t show up.” Ginny said, smiling.

“Don’t call her that.” Harry took the letter and scanned through it. “Send him a parrot saying we’ll do it.”

“Do we have to?” Ginny groaned.

“Yes! This is your sister-in-law to be!” Harry emphasised.

“It’s not like I got to pick her.” Ginny pointed out and sauntered of to the communications room.

Harry sighed, half from exasperation and half from- no. He had to think of other things. “Hermione!”

His navigator left her argument and came over. “What was Ginny doing with that letter?”

“It’s from Bill. Fleur didn’t arrive with her scheduled ship. He’s asked us to go and pick her up.” Harry explained. He didn’t like Fleur enormously, because of the way he had seen her treat the Weasleys and their house boat, but she couldn’t help it that she didn’t fit their way of life very well. Hermione didn’t like Fleur either, and this was evident, as a look of disgust spread across her face.

“And are we going to?”

“Yes. We set sail in an hour. Could you-”

“Plot a course? Yep. Are we taking Bill with us?”

Harry shook his head. “We’re going to pick her up as fast as we can. Bill doesn’t know why she didn’t arrive, but he knows she never got on the ship.”

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. “Is the-”

Harry shrugged. “Supposedly.”

“Have fun telling Ron.” Hermione scowled and stalked off to her room, where she would draw a route across a copy of a map from the port the _Firebolt_ was currently at and the port nearest Fleur.

Harry strode over to the head of the table and slammed his fist onto the wood. “Listen up!”

The arguments ground to a halt and everyone turned to look at Harry.

“We’ve got a mission.” Harry announced.

“But it’s four days until the wedding!” Ron protested.

“Well, if we don’t pull the mission off, there won’t be a wedding.” Harry said grimly. “We got a letter from Bill. Fleur didn’t arrive on her expected ship. He’s asked us to go and pick her up.”

The crew stared at him in shock.

“Fleur didn’t show up?” Ron gasped. “You don’t think she’s- I can’t say it.”

Harry ran a hand through his hair. “I think Fleur would have said if she’d decided the wedding was off. Besides, she loves Bill.”

“And you’re sure Bill hasn’t heard anything from her?” Dean checked.

“Yep.”

“Where does she live?” Neville asked.

“I’m not sure.” Harry looked at Ron hopefully, but he stared back blankly.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“I thought you’d know where Fleur lives.”

“No idea. GINNY!” Ron yelled. “She’ll know,” he told Dean as a side note.

“Ginny’s on watch.” Katie scolded.

“Oh yeah.”

Luna perked up. “I think I might know.”

“How do you know?” Harry wondered.

“I saw her point to it on a map once. I don’t know what it’s called, but I know where it is.” Luna stood up. “I’ll go and see if Hermione will let me look at a map.”

“What do we do if she lives on the south coast of France?” Angelina furrowed her eyebrow. “There’s no way we can get there and back in time for the wedding.”

“We’ll have to try.” Harry said firmly. “We can’t let Bill down and if we fail, it’ll be our fault the wedding isn’t on.”

“And Mum’ll kill us,” Ron groaned. “We absolutely _cannot_ fail.”

Luna came skipping back into the mess hall. “It’s alright. She’s on our side of France. St-Jean-de-Monts, on the West coast. Should take a day and a half to two days to get there. Hermione would like to know when we’re leaving.”

“We’ll leave in half an hour.” Harry decided. “Someone send a parrot to Mrs Weasley and say where we’re going. Dean, have we got enough food to last us?”

“I’ll go and check.” Dean got up and ran towards his precious galley.

“We’re going to need new ropes for the fore sail’s halyards.” Alicia said. “Have we got any spare in the hold?”

“No.” Oliver shook his head. “I was going to get some more while the wedding was on.”

“We’ll go and get some more now.” Katie said to Alicia and they ran off to the ship builder’s in the port.

“We’ll ready the sails.” Angelina and Seamus headed for the deck, leaving Harry and Ron alone in the mess hall. Neville and Luna had vanished towards the hold.

“Will we ever get a normal week off?” Ron asked wearily, resting his head on his hand.

“I think we’ll probably have to retire first.” Harry dug his hands deep into his pockets. “I’m beginning to sympathise with your mum, and wish that Bill had got engaged to a British girl instead of a French one.”

“Hey!” Ron protested. “Fleur is absolutely-”

“Yeah, I know. Come on, we need to help. This ship will not captain or first mate itself, no matter how many potions Hermione pours into the water system.” Harry pulled Ron to his feet and they headed up the ladder to the deck.

“I bet we could find someone on the black market who’s got a spell for that.” Ron mused.

“Ron, as much as I would love that too, we agreed no more black market spells unless it’s life or death. You remember how the last one went.” Harry headed for the steering hut and Ron went to help Angelina and Seamus with the sails.

“How many copies of the map do you want?” Hermione asked briskly without looking up from her map desk in the hut. Her hair hid the map from Harry’s view.

“As many as you think we’ll need. It won’t take too long to get there.”

“About that, Harry.” Hermione sat up straight and looked him dead in the eye. “If the weather stays as it is, and I think it probably will, we aren’t going to get Fleur back in time for the wedding.”

Harry’s heart sank. “That’s not an option. We have to get back in time. We might just have to use some, you know.”

“Magic.” Hermione sighed. “I think you might be right, but, but Harry, what if Fleur refuses to come back with us?”

“We’ll deal with that if it happens.” Harry had a glimpse at one of the maps. “Hermione, are you all right?”

Her hands seemed more ink stained than usual, her eyes were weary and the lines drawn in the maps were pressed so hard they almost ripped thorught the paper. “I’m fine.”

“No you aren’t.” Harry folded his arms. “I know you better than that. And I know what’s bothering you.”

“If you know what’s bothering me, then what is it?” Hermione snapped quietly.

Harry, unperturbed, answered. “Ron.”

Hermione glared at him. “Harry, that’s not why I’m-”

“Yes, it is. Stop lying. I’m not blind and I’m not stupid.”

“But he is.” Hermione grumbled.

“Hermione!” Harry scolded.

Hermione gave him a glare and Harry walked out onto deck.

Luna and Oliver were winding up the anchor and Hedwig, Harry’s parrot, was flying off inland. Ron and Angelina were busy securing the main sail to the mast.

“Where’s Seamus?” Harry asked.

“I’m up here!” Seamus shouted from the crow’s nest. “I’m putting the new flag on!”

“New flag?” Harry was confused. “Why do we have a new one?”

“The one with the fireball got burned when we had that fight with Greyback. Dean drew a new one and Luna made it.” Seamus finished fastening the flag on and it unfurled in the wind. It was a lightning bolt. He peered over the edge of the crow’s nest to catch a glimpse of Harry’s face and nearly fell out he laughed so hard.

“Not funny!” Harry shouted and folded his arms crossly. “Put up a Jolly Rodger instead!”

Seamus groaned but followed the order. “Spoilsport!”

Dean ran up onto deck. “We’ve got all the food we need.”

“Good. We’ll have meals at the usual times.”

Alicia and Katie came running back with arms full of coiled rope. Within minutes, the halyards on the foresail had been replaced and it was strung up, ready to go. Everyone but Dean, who was cooking in his galley, and Hermione, who was still in her hut, assembled on deck and took their places on deck and up the rigging. Ron was standing nest to the rail, waiting for permission to signal one of the dock hands to untie the painter. “Captain? Are we going to leave port or not?”

“Hang on.” Harry turned to the steering hut. “HERMIONE!”

Hermione left the hut and handed Harry a map. “South by south east.”

“Leave the port!” Harry commanded. “We’ve got a wedding to save.”

“Really? Really?” Ginny looked like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “We’ve got a wedding to save? Oh Harry.”

“It was the best thing I could think of.” Harry walked into the steering hut, which had wall-to-wall windows on all four sides and the ship’s wheel in the middle, in front of Hermione’s map desk, next to a telescope. There was a compass stand on the right of the wheel and a lantern hanging from a rope in the ceiling. “Hermione, get Ginny to come and tell us when she sees France please.”

“Yes sir.”

“Don’t call me sir.”

“Thank goodness.” Hermione began to get up from her chair. “Do you want me to draw up the rota?”

“Can Oliver do it? If there’s someone else who can do his job,”

“Yep.”

Harry was left to steer his ship out of the harbour. He slipped into his usual mind frame when steering: he only looked at the buoys as they tacked into the English Channel and blocked out the sounds of joking from his crew. The wind was blowing at an ideal speed in the perfect direction and he didn’t have to worry about anything. Everything was peaceful and all was right in Harry’s world.

Then the rain began.


	2. The Trapper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sea monster on the horizon.  
> TW: gore, violence, near-death experiences and graphic description of injuries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SEA MONSTER SEA MONSTER SEA MONSTER! YAY!

It wasn’t gentle rain that came in slowly. It wasn’t drizzle, which however unpleasant it may be, is far better than a shower. Thick dark grey clouds came rolling in from the horizon like racing chariots in Ancient Rome. The sky overhead nearly blackened and thunder began to grumble at the same times as the wind became angry.

They hadn’t even caught sight of France yet.

Harry snapped out of his bubble of bliss and began giving orders out of the doorway and over the roar of the storm. “Oliver! Come and steer!”

Oliver ran across the deck to the steering hut and took the wheel from Harry.

“Forget about the course, just try and keep us afloat!” Harry grabbed a pile of mackintoshes off the floor and dashed out to give them to his crew. A flash of lightning lit up the sky and Ginny came scrambling down from the crow’s nest.

“There’s something wrong with this storm!” Luna shouted.

“Other than the fact that it came out of nowhere when it was supposed to be good weather?” Ron asked sarcastically.

“No. I think there’s something magical about it.”

The storm was over almost as quickly as it had arrived, but once the last drop of rain had fallen and the final gust of wind had ravaged the sails, they had no idea where they were. No land was in sight and the compass seemed to think they were going North West.

“Are we lost?” Seamus asked Harry, hands on his hips and hair practically glued to his face with rainwater.

Harry looked to Hermione, who looked to Oliver, who looked to the heavens. “Yes. Yes, we are lost.”

Seamus scowled and glared out to sea. “Lost on our way to France from the South of England. Only your ship could have achieved such a feat, Harry Potter.”

“Seamus, we talked about this!” Katie growled.

Seamus humphed and went to go and check on Dean in the galley, ‘in case he’s been crushed by one of his stupid frying pans’.

“What are we going to do?” Angelina asked after checking that the ship hadn’t been damaged.

“Sail until we see something.” Harry suggested.

“But we might not stop until we reach Puerto Rico then.” Ginny pointed out. “By which time we will have starved to death.”

Fog began to creep around the edges of the boat and had soon blocked the sea from view. The fog itself was pale purple.

“Hermione, what is this?” Harry asked.

Katie ventured towards the fog and touched some of it. “It isn’t poisonous.”

“it’s just normal fog.” Hermione decided. “It’s turned purple because the light particles from the lightning seem to have dispersed in the fog and turned it purple.”

“Put the anchor down.” Harry commanded. “We aren’t going anywhere until this fog has all cleared.”

They spent three hours sitting on deck, getting wetter and colder by the minute, waiting for the fog to clear.

“There are shipwrecks.” Alicia said suddenly. “Look, the fog’s clearing. There are shipwrecks everywhere.”

The bones of ships and remains of sails stuck out of the fog, clustered on rocks and rotting into the sea, barnacle encrusted and seaweed coated. It felt like they were in a graveyard.

“I just saw something.” Luna said suddenly.

“What?” Harry asked.

Luna pointed at what little they could see of the water. “There. There’s a creature. It looks like a trapper!”

“What’s that?” Ron asked.

“it’s a magical creature that causes fog this colour and really powerful ones can make storms!” Luna said excitedly. “I was right! That storm was magic!”

The water began to ripple and bubbles floated to the surface.

“Are trappers dangerous?” Oliver asked, backing towards the hatch as the fog began to slowly clear.

“Oh yes.” Luna said calmly. “They’re very dangerous.”

“And you’re sure you saw one?” Harry checked. “Are you certain that it’s a trapper?”

Luna nodded, leaning eagerly over the rail as she looked for the sea monster.

“Will it attack us?” Ron asked worriedly, as Seamus made a reappearance.

“What’s going to attack us?” he demanded eagerly, pulling himself up and looking around for another ship.

“A trapper.” Luna frowned. “Trappers can be quite nasty actually. We could be in real danger when it attacks.”

“What’s a trapper?” Seamus asked, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve never fought one of them before!”

“It’s a sea monster.” Neville told him. “And one’s about to attack us.”

Seamus’ eyes widened. “I’ll get the swords.”

Harry realised that his sword wasn’t firmly strapped to his side like it normally was. In the rush to leave for France, he had completely forgotten to put it on. The end of a dark green, scaled tail appeared out of the water and then vanished. “Hurry Seamus!”

Seamus disappeared below decks and the crew ran to their battle positions.

“How do you stop these things?” Katie asked.

“I’m not sure.” Luna seemed far too happy to be sane. “They tend not to leave any survivors.”

Seamus and Dean came back and threw swords, cutlasses, daggers and axes out to their respective owners. There was a rumbling below the ship.

“What was that?” Hermione, not particularly one for scary sea monsters, had gone pale.

“Probably the trapper.” Luna said unhelpfully.

The water around the ship was rippling. A huge blue head, like that of a basilisk, shot out of the water on top of a long, scaled neck. It had hundreds of huge, wicked teeth, yellow eyes with slits for pupils and a frilled ruff around its neck. It roared at them. Several people screamed.

“That rumbling was the trapper.” Luna informed Hermione.

“Aim for its mouth!” Harry shouted.

Knives and daggers were thrown at the Trapper but either missed completely or bounced of the trapper’s thick skin harmlessly.

“It’s not working!” Ginny shouted. “We need to try something else!”

The trapper roared as one knife bounced off one of its teeth and narrowly missed slicing open its gum. Its pupils narrowed even more and it snarled, lowering its head to try and bite Angelina’s head off. She ducked and dashed out of the way, managing not to get decapitated. The trapper’s head hit the deck with a thud but it rose up before anyone could slice its neck open.

Something hit hard against the side of the ship, which rocked violently. The sea monster had hit its tail into the ship.

“See if we can get its head back onto the deck!” Harry ordered. “Then we might be able to skewer it!”

“And risk having it crash through the decks?” Ron demanded. “No thanks?”

Before Harry cold tell Ron to shut up, Luna had begun to climb the rigging.

“What are you doing?” Dean yelled. “You’ll get killed!”

“I’ve got a plan!” she climbed all the way up the rigging and then scaled the rest of the mast like a monkey. She was now level with the trapper’s head. “OI!”

The trapper turned its attention from trying to knock one of the shipwrecks into the _Firebolt_ and gnashed its teeth at Luna. She waved an arm in the air. “Come and get me!”

The trapper roared and lunged at her but she slid out of the way, down the very section of the mast that the trapper, moments later, ended up biting off and spitting out into the ocean. It lunged for Luna again and she slid even further down the mast. This gave Seamus the chance to shoot a fireball at it and the trapper screamed with rage as the fireball collided with the side of its head.

The trapper thrashed and screamed, its whole body writhing in pain, and its tail promptly swiped at the crew on deck. Hermione and Oliver managed to jump out of the way, but Ron got caught full on and was knocked over board.

The trapper roared in triumph as Ron vanished under the waves but its roar soon turned to one of pain as Katie sliced the end off its tail in one sweep. It retaliated by biting the main gaff in two so that the main sail fell on top of Seamus, Neville and Alicia at the same time as Harry jumped overboard to try and find Ron.

“If we had to die at sea,” Seamus spluttered as he thrashed around wildly, “did it have to be under a sail?”

A spluttering Harry resurfaced with a spluttering Ron and they began to splash their way towards the ship. The trapper was slamming into the _Firebolt_ again and again, rocking it back and forth violently, sending waves in every direction. Harry and Ron, who were laden down with weapons and soaking wet clothes and were exhausted, were struggling to make any progress towards the ship as they fought against the constant swash. With the water came random floating objects. A large plank of driftwood nearly crashed into the pair and they were too distracted by it to notice the trapper noticing them.

“Harry look out!” Hermione yelled.

The trapper tried to bite them but missed when Neville managed to get a dagger right above its eye. Instead of biting them in half, the trapper’s teeth caught the piece of driftwood and slammed it into Harry, who was knocked unconscious immediately.

Angelina threw Ron a rope and between them, she and Alicia managed to haul them back onto the ship while Luna and Dean threw a grappling hook into the trapper’s mouth. Hermione stifled a scream when she saw Harry’s wounds. Blood was pouring out of his side, there was a gash on his face and there may have been a bone sticking out of his skin somewhere. All the colour left Ginny’s face when she saw him and she took a few stumbling steps backwards.

“He’s alive!” Oliver shouted, checking Harry’s pulse.

Ginny roared and clambered hand over hand along the grappling hook’s rope, her sword between her teeth. She skewered the trapper threw the roof of its mouth. In seconds, it was dead and collapsed into the sea. Ginny jumped off its body as it fell and landed on the fallen sail. She screamed and grasped her right hand tightly.

As Harry was unconscious and Ron was still half drowned and in deep shook, Hermione took charge. “Who isn’t injured?”

Angelina, Alicia, Dean and Oliver were all alright. “Angelina and Oliver, try and sort the main sail out. Dean and Alicia, start getting everyone below decks and sort out the injuries. Seamus, how badly hurt are you?”

Seamus examined his knees, which were bloody, dirty, grazed and had a few splinters in. “As soon as this is cleaned up, I’ll be alright.”

“Get clean up and then help Angelina and Oliver sail us out of here.” Hermione helped Luna limp down to the hammocks, where Dean and Alicia were setting up a makeshift hospital. Dean hauled in the first aid chest and as soon as Seamus had pulled the splinters out of his knee he ran back up to deck.

Harry was in the worst shape. He had lost a lot of blood and had clearly broken ribs. The gash on his ace had turned a nasty shade of green. Ron, who had been wrapped in blankets, and Ginny with her broken fingers tied together and left eye swelling up sat next to Harry, watching his unconscious body and praying for a sign of life.

Blood was oozing out of Luna’s hands, arms and her legs, one of which was twisted. All the skin had been scraped off as she slid down the mast.

Neville’s right shoulder was hanging at an odd angle and blood was pouring out of a wound on his collarbone he was desperately trying to staunch.

Hermione’s forearms were turning blue, giving a multi-coloured background to the multitude of cuts.

Katie was lying on her front on a hammock because of the makeshift stitches Alicia had put into the gash on her back, with a dazed look on her face from a concussion.

“We need magic.” Dean decided, looking at Harry. “Or he doesn’t stand a chance of surviving.”

Ginny was clutching Harry’s hand with her uninjured one. Hermione ran for her box of magic potions. The crew watched on in silence and fear as their captain fought for his life on the floor of the hammock room.

Essence of Dittany was poured over Harry’s wounds as the ship began to sail again. The wound sealed up but he remained unconscious. Ginny and Ron stayed by him as everyone else was treated as well as possible. The ship juddered back and forth, moving very slowly.

When the worst of the injuries were dealt with, Hermione went up on deck to see how the working crew was getting on. She came back down, almost in tears. Everyone knew why.

Everyone had lost track of time by the point Harry regained consciousness. His eyes flickered open and he smiled at Ginny, then winced.

“The trapper,” he wheezed weakly and his face filled with pain.

“Dead!” Ginny smiled. “I killed it.”

“Is everyone alive?”

Ginny nodded.

“I think I’ve broken my ribs.”

“Probably.”

Panic flashed across Harry’s face. “Fleur. We have to get to Fleur. Are we going to get there on time?”

“Hermione?” Ginny called her over. Harry looked at his navigator anxiously. Hermione shook her head sadly. Her eyes were red and puffy. “The ship’s too damaged with too small a crew. I’m sorry Harry.”

Harry’s face fell and he shut his eyes.

“Hermione!” Oliver shouted from the deck. “It’s Krum! Viktor Krum’s coming towards us!”

Hermione ran up on deck. Ron’s face turned a slightly ashy colour and Ginny patted his arm.

“Don’t worry mate.” Harry said. “She prefers you.”

The tell-tale sounds of a ship drawing near and someone coming aboard gave away what was going on. Angelina soon came down to confirm what was happening. “Hermione told Krum what happened. He’s offered to tow us to St Jean-de-Monts. We’re going to get there on time!”


	3. Almost Everything Possible Goes Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> France, a shipwreck and one Draco Malfoy.  
> Plus a whole lotta snogging.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter!

It took three days to get there, with the _Firebolt_ in the state it was. Krum left them at the port with well wishes to Harry and a bow to Hermione, after they had all thanked him and his crew profusely. They would see him at the wedding, which he had been on his way to when he found them.

With the aid of Hermione’s box of tricks, most of the crew had recovered from most of their injuries, though the fight with the trapper and the pressure of getting Fleur to England on time weighed heavy on their minds.

They sailed the _Firebolt_ in and Hermione, the only one of the crew who could speak decent French, rushed to find someone who could do emergency repairs on the ship. Harry, Ginny and Ron went to find Fleur, leaving Oliver in charge.

“Good luck.” Dean leaned over the railing as he watched them walk into the busy French port.

“Do you know where she lives?” Ginny asked hopefully.

Ron pulled a piece of paper with an address written on it out of his pocket. “I can’t pronounce that.”

A little girl about ten years old, with long blonde hair, ran up to them. “Harry Potter?” she asked with a thick French accent.

Harry nodded and the girl ran off.

“Who was that?” he asked.

“Fleur’s sister, I think.” Ron stared after her. “If we follow her, do you think we’ll find Fleur?”

There was no need to. Fleur’s sister soon returned with Fleur in tow. When she saw them, Fleur burst into tears and hugged them all.

“You came to get me!” she sobbed and hugged them again.

Between tears and bouts of hysterics, Fleur explained what had happened. “My parents would not let me go on the ship. Many ships disappeared. Monster.” she pointed out at the bay.

“It was a trapper.” Ginny said. “I killed it. It’s safe now.”

“Bill sent us to come and get you.” Ron said helpfully. At the mention of Bill’s name, Fleur cried even more. “Ah Bill, ‘e must ‘ave thought I ‘ave ‘ow you say, left ‘im!”

“No!” Ron patted Fleur on the arm awkwardly. Fleur flung her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder. “He doesn’t think that! He sent us to get you, didn’t he?”

Fleur cried even more, thoroughly dousing Ron’s sleeve, until her sister tapped her on the back and jabbered something.

“Yes, yes! I must get my things and then you can take me to Bill! What ship do you ’ave?”

“The _Firebolt_.” Harry watched Fleur run off, her sister at her heels.

“What do we do now? Where do we go?” Ginny tried to dry Ron’s sleeve but was pushed away.

“I think we go back to the ship and hope she shows up.”

~

Harry had broken his ribs worse than ever before. That meant he need painkillers, which meant he slept heavily and a lot.

“Harry! Wake up! We’re sinking!” Ron was shaking him violently.

Harry fumbled for his glasses. “We’re sinking?”

“We hit a rock and we’re going down fast.” Ron was very pale.

Harry tipped himself out of his hammock. He could feel the ship juddering beneath his feet, doing nothing but harm to his ribs. “Is there anything we can do to fix it?”

Ron shook his head.

“Where did the rock hit?”

“The hull.”

Harry ran as fast as he could. Oliver and Seamus were desperately pumping water out, but the water was already up to their thighs and the rock was visible.

“How quickly’s the water coming in?” Harry demanded.

“Three times as fast as we can pump.” Oliver was dripping with sweat.

The beans beneath their feet were beginning to give out. “We’ve got 30 minutes.” Harry decided. “Get out of here and see if we can flag down a ship.”

“Is everyone on deck?” Seamus asked, worried. “Is Dean out of the galley?”

“Go and check.”

They ran out of the hold in their different directions. On deck, Hermione and Angelina were stringing up rescue flags, Katie was setting off flares and Neville was waving a lantern. Everyone else was standing around helplessly.

“Harry!” Ginny ran to his side and threw her arms around him. “Is there anything we can do?”

Harry shook his head and squeezed her unbroken hand. Dean and Seamus stumbled out of the hatch and the _Firebolt_ gave an almighty lurch. Fleur was clinging to Luna’s side, fear all over her face. It was pitch black, with no land or ships in sight.

“We’re going to die.” Ginny said quietly.

Harry didn’t deny it. Across the deck, the rest of the crew was coming to the same conclusion. Neville and Luna were comforting Fleur. Alicia and Katie were kissing each other like it was the last time they ever would, which it probably was. Oliver and Angelina were crying for those they had not confessed their feelings to. Seamus and Dean were holding each other. Hermione seemed to have admitted her feeling for Ron, because they were kissing each other furiously.

“I love you,” Harry whispered.

Ginny smiled, stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “I love you too.” she had tears in her eyes. “I can’t stop thinking about my mum.”

Harry felt as if someone had just stabbed him at the thought of Mrs Weasley. Two of her children and her future daughter-in-law were on the ship, about to drown. They were all excellent swimmers, but with their injuries, in the dark and the cold, none of them stood a chance. Harry, too, began to cry.

Ron and Hermione were still kissing.

“It’s about time!” Harry called out, voice cracking.

Hermione and Ron broke apart and grinned. The ship gave another lurch and fell to only a metre above the sea. Time was running out.

“There’s a light!” Angelina shouted.

The lights of a ship were heading towards them. There was a general chorus of contrasting swearing and hallelujahs. The outline of the ship became clearer. “Shout!” Harry commanded.

All thoughts of impending doom and near death vanished. All capable crew members began to jump, shout and wave their arms about. The ship got closer and closer. The name of the ship became visible. _Diffugere_

The crew fell silent. Owned and run by a certain Draco Malfoy, one of Harry’s worst enemies, the _Diffugere_ was a part-time smuggler, part-time pirate and part-time fine goods merchant ship. Draco Malfoy appeared at the railing of the ship. He was wearing a dark cloak and his platinum blonde hair and grey eyes were lit up by a spare lantern.

“Don’t worry.” He called out. “I won’t kill you. Get on board as fast as you can. You haven’t got long.”

A rope ladder was thrown over the side and the crew of the _Firebolt_ scrambled up. Malfoy’s crew seemed rather shocked as most of their captain’s, and consequently their, worst enemies were saved from shipwreck. “Captain, why are we rescuing them?” Zabini was heard muttering to Malfoy.

“Potter, you and your crew can sleep in the hammocks downstairs.”

Harry didn’t get a chance to respond immediately as suddenly, Marcus Flint pushed his way through the crowd of Malfoy’s gawping, gobsmacked crew to kiss Oliver Wood full on the mouth.

Malfoy raised his eyebrows. “Did you know about this?”

“No.”

“Crabbe and Goyle, go and prepare hammocks for Mr Potter’s crew.” Malfoy ordered. “How many have you got?”

“12. I’ll stay on deck.”

Hermione shot Harry a questioning look and he gave her a reassuring nod. There was a loud creak and he looked up just in time to watch the _Firebolt_ vanish beneath the waves. The crew walked uneasily below decks, but it was proof of their trust in Harry that they went below at all.

“Do you need to send a parrot to anyone?” Malfoy asked, beckoning Harry to stand by the ship’s wheel.

“Uh, yes.” Harry tried to keep it together over the loss of his ship.

Malfoy ordered one of his crew to bring Harry a parrot and writing materials and soon a message was on its way to the Weasleys and the _Diffugere_ was on its way to Britain.

“I hope we aren’t inconveniencing you too much.” Harry said awkwardly.

“Not at all.”

They stood side by side for the rest of the night, and only days later, when Luna reported to him what she had heard Malfoy’s crew grumbling, would Harry find out just how much they _had_ inconvenienced Malfoy.

~

It was dark when the ship drew up at the harbour. There were still about two hours left before dawn broke and the only lights came from the torches on Draco Malfoy’s ship and the guiding lanterns on the wharves. Harry had to give Malfoy credit for getting the ship in with perfect accuracy in near total darkness.

“You’re welcome to stay on the ship until daylight.” Draco said quietly to Harry. He ran his eyes over the faint outlines of objects on the dock. “Actually, the redheads are already here. They’re awful at camouflage, aren’t they?”

Harry had to agree. “Thank you, Captain Malfoy.”

Draco raised his eyebrows. “Did you just call me Captain, Potter?”

“Don’t make me regret it.” Harry took a deep breath and said something he never thought he would. “Thank you, though, seriously. We would probably be dead without you. And I owe you my life.”

“Think of it as a favour.” Draco reached his hand out to Harry as his crew began to tie the boat up. “I’ll see you around Potter.”

Harry shook. “You can count on it, Malfoy.”

Looking back on that moment in the many days of bed rest that were to follow, Harry would wonder if perhaps their hands had been together for a second too long or if they had been holding each other’s gaze for a moment more than was socially acceptable, considering a few hours ago they had been enemies, but at the time he thought nothing of it and with a nod, left Draco Malfoy’s side to assemble his crew. He went from hammock to hammock, shaking them all awake. Fleur was wide awake and sitting on the floor.

“’ave we arrived?” she asked Harry, eyes wide.

“Yes.”

Someone had lit a huge lantern on the dock and the crew of the _Firebolt_ watched Fleur leap off the boat and run into Bill’s arms.

Mrs Weasley caught sight of the others. “Ginny! Ron! Harry! Hermione! Oh look at you all! What happened? We’ve been worried sick?”

Sometime after all the hugging, examining of wounds and tearful reunions, Harry found himself squeezed onto a bench in a tavern between Ginny and Oliver. Bill and Fleur were glued to each other’s side and Mr and Mrs Weasley looked more relieved than Harry had ever seen them. Ginny was pressing a bottle of cold beer against her black eye with one hand and holding the broken fingers of the other against her chest.

“I’ve changed my mid.” Ginny said quietly to Harry.

“On what?”

“On whether Fleur was worth nearly being eaten alive by a sea monster for or not.”

“And?”

“She’s worth it. For Bill. And for her.” Ginny thought for a moment. “Not worth the broken fingers, though.”

Harry laughed, ignoring the pain in his ribs. “No matter how much madder our world gets, you never change Ginny Weasley. Never.”

“Something’s got to stay constant around here.” she put her beer down and laced her fingers with Harry’s under the table.

_Yes._ Harry thought. _Something does have to stay constant in this whirlpool we’ve got ourselves sucked into._

He didn’t get a chance to think over this for long, because the next thing he knew, Fred and George had arrived and George was snogging Angelina like his life depended on it, which got everyone’s attention very quickly.

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> Diffugere is Latin for 'to vanish'.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!


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